Sunday
Morning Bible Study
October
17, 2010
Introduction
Do people see Jesus? Is the gospel
preached? Does it speak to the broken hearted? Does it build up the church? Milk
– Meat – Manna Preach for a decision
We are on the
Thursday evening before Jesus is crucified, at the event known as “the Last
Supper”.
Jesus has just laid some pretty heavy things on His disciples.
He told them
that one of them would betray Him.
Judas already left to get his betrayal moving.
Jesus told them
that He was going away to a place they could not follow.
He told Peter
that before the evening was over, Peter would deny Jesus three times.
14:1-3 Comforting
the disciples
:1 “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.
:1 troubled
– tarasso – to agitate, trouble; to
cause one inward commotion, take away his calmness of mind, to render anxious
or distressed
The disciples have good reason to be “troubled”.
One of them is
going to betray Jesus.
Jesus is going
away.
Peter is going
to deny Jesus.
:1 believe
– pisteuo – to think to be true, to
be persuaded of, place confidence in
Both words in the verse are exactly
the same form of pisteuo. The difficulty with translation here is that
either occurrence could be a command (imperative), or either word could be a simple
statement of fact (indicative) – both forms in this case look identical.
Both could be statements of fact:
You believe in God and you believe
in Me.
The problem with this translation
is that it doesn’t seem to offer much of an answer to their being troubled.
It could be one of each (like
NKJV):
You believe in God, believe also in
Me
Both could be commands:
Believe in God, believe also in Me
(NAS)
I think this could be the better
translation. The answer to worry is to
believe in God AND to believe in Jesus.
Or even:
Believe in God, you also believe in
Me
Lesson
Worry or Trust
We have a choice before us when we face difficult times.
We can either worry or we can trust.
What does it mean to “believe in God”?
:1 in God … in Me
Both phrases use the Greek preposition eis, which is usually translated “into” rather than “in”
The concept of “faith” or trust is more than just some sort of
intellectual agreement. There is a sort of
“action” involved with faith. There’s a sense of
“movement” implied, believing “into” God.
Illustration
Most of you
came to church this morning in an automobile. Do you believe that your car will
take you home after the service? How
does that “faith” in your car work? Do you stay in your seat,
close your eyes, and just “believe”, then expect to open your eyes and you are
at home? No, if you believe your car will take you
home, you will leave your current seat, get into your car, and drive it home.
There is a similar sense in our belief in Jesus. We believe “into” Him, we trust ourselves
into His care.
There is a sense of movement – not just intellectual acknowledgement, but of
trusting yourself to Him.
Illustration
Blondin the tightrope walker.
Jean Francois
Gravelet was born February 28, 1824 in France. He developed his skills as an
acrobat under the guidance of P.T. Barnum (of Barnum & Bailey Circus). He became known as the Great Blondin.
In 1859 (35 yrs. old) he announced
that he would do the most amazing of all feats, he would cross Niagara Falls on a tightrope 1,100
feet long, 160 feet above the water.
On June 30, 1859
the rope was in position and at five
o’clock in the afternoon Blondin started the trip that was to make history.
Incredulous watchers saw him lower a rope to the Maid of the Mist, pull up a
bottle and sit down while he refreshed himself. He began his ascent toward the
Canadian shore, paused, steadied the balancing pole and suddenly executed a
back somersault. The crowd ‘screamed’, women ‘fainted’, those near the rope
‘cried’ and begged him to come in. When he finally stepped off the rope, he was grabbed by a
delirious mob of well wishers who whisked him away to a champagne celebration.
He crossed the
Falls several times, each time making it more difficult. In all, he crossed the
rope on a bicycle, walking
blindfolded, pushing a wheelbarrow, stopping to cook an omelet in the center,
making the trip with his hands and feet manacled, even crossing on stilts.
His most daring
crossing came when he announced that he would carry a man across on his back.
It would be his manager, Harry
Colcord. According to Colcord, the trip was a nightmare. In the un-guyed center section, the
pair swayed violently.
Blondin was fighting for his life. He broke into a desperate run to reach the
first guy rope. When he reached it and steadied himself, the guy rope broke. Once more the pair swayed
alarmingly as Blondin again ran for the next guy rope. When they reached it
Blondin gasped for Colcord to get down. Six times in all Colcord had to
dismount while Blondin struggled to gather his strength. In the end Blondin had to
charge the crowd on the brink to prevent the press of people forcing them back
in the precipice.
He performed privately for both the Prince of Wales and King Edward VII, he repeated
the stunt of ‘carrying a man on his back’ and offered to carry the prince, but
he declined.
You don’t have
to be a tightrope walker to get across the falls of life. But it does help if
you know a great tightrope walker.
Blondin may have been great, but he’s nothing compared to Jesus.
For some of you, you need to learn to trust your life to Jesus.
There is a great chasm between us and heaven. There’s no way you’re going
to get across on your own.
You just need to trust Jesus enough to get on His
shoulders. You need to trust “into” Him.
Don’t be like the Prince of Wales and simply settle for
being entertained. Take the offer.
Illustration
Years ago when
we first started the church and my youngest son was around three years old,
he’d ask me a question as we’d leave church on Sunday nights. He wanted to help me carry stuff out to the
car.
“Daddy, can I carry something?”
“No, Timmy, it’s too heavy for you”
“Daddy,
I want to carry your briefcase!”
“Timmy, it’s too heavy”
“DADDY!”
Then I let him try to carry the briefcase.
He picks it up for a few seconds, and walks about two steps
before he says, “Daddy, it’s too heavy, can you carry it?”
It’s a pretty smart thing to learn that you can’t carry some things in
life. You need Daddy to carry them for
you. You need to “trust” them “into”
your Father’s hands.
How do I trust things into God’s hands?
Paul wrote,
(Php 4:6–7 NKJV) —6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and
supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God,
which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through
Christ Jesus.
Ask God for His help.
Put it in His hands.
:2 In My Father’s
house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to
prepare a place for you.
:2 house – oikia –
a house
:2 mansions
– mone – a staying, abiding,
dwelling, abode
From meno, “to abide”. NAS – “dwelling places”, NIV – “rooms”
There are a lot of the old writers who like to talk about the “mansions” in
heaven, like this old hymn:
"My heavenly home is bright and fair, Nor
pain nor death can enter there.
Its glittering towers the sun
outshine; That heavenly mansion shall be mine."
It
makes you think of some large, Victorian house.
It’s possible that Jesus wasn’t talking about a house, but perhaps our
glorified bodies that we receive at the Rapture. Paul wrote about these bodies:
(2 Co 5:1 NKJV) For we know that
if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a
house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
:2 to prepare
– hetoimazo – to make ready; to make
the necessary preparations
:2 place
– topos – any portion or space marked
off
Some of the
language that Jesus uses reminds us of the ancient Jewish weddings.
In the Jewish
culture of Jesus’ day, the custom for a marriage was for the husband and wife
to life with the groom’s parents. The
groom would have the responsibility of building on to his parent’s house. The actual day of the wedding was apparently
kept secret, and even the bride
didn’t know what day it would come. Her
friends would stay with her, waiting for the announcement “Behold the
Bridegroom is coming!” Then the Groom would show up, and lead the group back to
the couples’ new house, a room at the father’s house, where the wedding feast
would begin.
In Capernaum,
where Jesus lived for awhile, you can see how the houses have these extra rooms
built on them as the family expands.
Play “Insula Style Houses”
clip. (starts around marker 6:50)
Lesson
Your room is ready
How did Jesus prepare a place for us?
1. He unlocked the door.
He unlocked the door to heaven by dying on the cross.
Before a single person could be allowed into heaven, something had to be
done with the outstanding, overdue bills for mankind’s sin.
Each person could pay for their own sins by going to hell.
Or someone else could come along and pay them for us, and
that’s what Jesus did.
When Jesus died on the cross, He was paying for the sins of the world.
(2 Co 5:21 NKJV) For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we
might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Now that our sins have been paid for, a way has been made for us to enter
into heaven, into our “abode”.
Now that the price has been paid, all a person has to do
to go to heaven is receive the free gift of Jesus’ death for your sins.
2. He’s finishing the construction.
Jesus said that He would be going for the purpose of preparing that place,
and since He hasn’t come back yet, I think we can assume that heaven is still
be under construction.
If
God made this beautiful world in only six days, then think what heaven is like, since He’s been working
on it for almost 2000 years!
Paul wrote:
(1 Co 2:9
NKJV) But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor
ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has
prepared for those who love Him.”
We really can’t even imagine how awesome it’s going to be!
John got a peek at it:
(Re
21:2–4 NKJV) —2 Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out
of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard
a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men,
and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be
with them and be their God. 4 And God will wipe away every tear from their
eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no
more pain, for the former things have passed away.”
Perhaps the place
being prepared for us is the New Jerusalem.
:3 And if I go
and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that
where I am, there you may be also.
:3 receive – paralambano
– to take to, to take with one’s self, to join to one’s self
:3 I will come
again
Jesus is coming again. When He
comes, He will take us home with Him.
For some of us it will be in the soon coming Rapture. Paul
wrote:
(1 Th 4:16–17 NKJV) 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a
shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the
dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together
with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always
be with the Lord.
Do I think that the rapture might happen soon?
Yes. Have you been
reading the newspapers? Are you
following the things happening in Israel and in Iran?
For some of us,
it will be when we die
It’s possible that some of us will not be around at the time of the
Rapture. But we will still be with
Jesus.
When Paul wrote to the Philippians, he wasn’t exactly sure if he would be
alive much longer:
(Php 1:21–23 NKJV) —21 For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22 But
if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall
choose I cannot tell. 23
For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ,
which is far better.
Paul knew that physical death meant being with
Christ. Which is a GOOD thing.
Lesson
Hope to endure
This is why we do not need to be afraid or troubled.
Heaven is a real place, and when you’ve found the forgiveness that comes
through Jesus Christ, that’s where you’re headed.
I want to play
a clip from the TV show ER. It’s about a
doctor who is going to die of cancer.
He’s struggling with the bad things that he’s done in life and he wants
answers. He’s talking to a “chaplain”
who apparently doesn’t know much about God.
This is the cry
of the world – for real truth, real answers.
The truth is that there is forgiveness from God because of what Jesus Christ did for us in
dying on the cross.
That
forgiveness is what gives us the hope of heaven.
Hope is what
kept Jesus going as He got closer to the cross.
(Heb 12:1–2 NKJV) —1 Therefore we also, since we are
surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which
so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set
before us, 2 looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured
the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the
throne of God.
:2 for the joy that was set before Him
One of the ways of understanding this phrase is that Jesus
knew what was up ahead, on the other side of the cross.
He
knew that there was the joy of the resurrection, the joy of heaven, and the joy
of making the way for us to join Him.
That’s what kept Jesus going.
Hope is what
keeps us going.
Illustration
There
was an interesting interview a few days ago on TV, the day after the miner’s in
Chile were rescued. Listen to what an
expert says is the most important ingredient to surviving.
Play
Survivor’s Club video
clip.
The writer of Hebrews tells us how important it is for us to look forward
if we want to endure.
(Heb 10:35–37
NKJV) —35 Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. 36 For you have need of
endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the
promise: 37 “For
yet a little while, And He who is coming will come and will not tarry.
The thing that keeps us going is to know that Jesus will
one day come back. We will one day be
with Him.
We don’t have hope
that our circumstances will necessarily change.
Your circumstances could possibly go from bad to worse.
Our hope is in
the day that we see Jesus.